Happy summer

Not quite into the 'Dog Days' of summer, but to snoops everyday is his day. Here he is relaxing on the reclining patio chair under the gazebo.

How's your garden going? Mine is doing alright... Here's how the taters are growing:

Planted a little late, 4/27
Sprouted 5/9

5/12
5/26

Today:

The new potato towers are working out really well. The vines seem pretty happy and healthy.

The garden in general is cranking along. We're about midway through the first harvest of sugar snap peas.... finally. The rest of the summer garden is all the usual stuff:
Potatoes
Tomatoes
Carrots
Onions
Green Beans
Radishes
Butternut Squash
Acorn Squash
Pumpkin

New this year:
Sweet Corn (Silver Queen and Spring Treat)
Melons

Its hard to believe, but it is time to start seeds for the Fall/Winter garden already, so I planted a whole bunch more stuff this weekend:

Parsnip
Kale
Chard

The 'only' thing left to plant for the summer garden is the shelling peas to climb up the corn once the corn is about knee-high. Hopefully it works.

This weekend is the summer solstice, longest day of the year. Hope to get up early for either dawn patrol surf or biking, then maybe fishing and then stay outside all day until we have campfire or something. Anyone interested?

-40.

Bonus pics.

Good times...

Especially if you are Sleepy's paddle...

FARTAB Vol. 6 (Part I)

I think that we can classify FARTAB Vol. 6 as a rousing success. No fatalities or arrests. We initiated Flat Tires into the world of FARTAB- this was his first and outside of some weirdo taking creepy shots of his feet and legs he seemed quite happy with the proceedings. Kaptain Krunch and Dogg came on their second float. 40 and BBW made their 6th and GUDG, Sleepy and myself were 4 or 5 respectively.

Big props to BBW for pulling the FARTAB version of the mullet. If a mullet is known as, 'business up front, party in back', then BBW's outfit for the trip should be referred to as, "business up top, party down below'. Wait. That doesn't sound good. I'll think about that and edit it later!

Anyway- there was a sweet addition to this FARTAB. Instead of having four to six different ibuckets blasting totally different tunes, 40 rigged up a nice 'n legal (honest... I swear...) FM transmitter so that we could all be listening to the same music and not have competing genres all day. Worked a treat. At least unti it was submarined. More on that later...

As we packed up I discovered the joys of not being a part of the car moving caravan. I was able to get my stuff set in an easy manner, get half way down on my first mixed beverage and have a rollicking game of parking lot Fappy Hun Ball. Sweeeet. GUDG was so excited to start that he ended up totally missing out on how to properly wear a beer-de-laro. Though I would say that moving forward this is a perfectly acceptable way. I will call it the 'Duff-man' variation.

After a quick group shot

GUDG and 40 showed us the direction to paddle and we were off.

Since this was the earliest FARTAB (calendar wise) on record, there was plenty of water which meant that getting under some bridges was a bit more of a chore than usual.

The challenge aroused Sleepy a little more than I thought a bridge would but hey- to each their own...

FARTAB Vol. 6 (Part II)

By late morning/early afternoon, the sun had broken through.

This made me happy- so I thought that I would document it.

Dogg and Kaptain Krunch seemed to be entertained no matter what the weather. Which is nice... Though I have to admit- I was always afraid that they were up to something, so I tried to keep my distance...

This year we skipped our normal lunch spot by the horseshoe falls and kept going, deciding to stop further down river. It was already well past lunch time so that might not have been the best course of action considering the time allocated towards the -ADAB portion of the trip.

This also gave me time to take pictures of the old broken down mill parts that line the river. Every time we pass one of these spillways it drives me crazy that there is not some kind of turbine capturing the water power. Seems to me that either the dam should be gone or should be used. One or the other. The parts of our past era as an economy when we actually made stuff is beautiful and kind of depressing...

From here on out, lots of rafting up was the call. It was nice that the river was so high- it allowed for us to make good time distance wise on the river with very little effort. And it made it easy to pass beverages off, too!

Just the way FARTAB should be. More F'ing (floating) less paddling and exertion!

FARTAB Vol. 6 (part III)

The prolonged period of rafting up and actually floating meant that there was an extended period of time for slaking thirst, listening to music and talking. The good part: it is fun! The bad part- it does tend to increase the chances of TMTD. This session lasted for a good portion of the afternoon so that by the time we got to the last 'portage' and were ready to load our gear, not even Darth Vader himself could slow our mood or stop us from running the last dam. Check out Darth in the first pic:

(Flat Tires is NOT scared of Darth)

(CTLP is...)

The definite downside was that a loss in coordination which was directly responsible for the major issue of the trip: Canoe sinking:

The first victim was an accidental torpedoing of Dogg and Kaptain Krunch's canoe by 40. Definitely unintentional- as there is no way that 40 would have soaked the transmitter on purpose. The FM transmitter's use was toast for the rest of the trip, but it is ready for a return performance... 40's bellow could be heard from miles away as he dragged the converted ibucket out of the river. Meanwhile, Dogg and KK were busying themselves with trying to save the food and other assorted items... Kudos to them for good scurrying. And if anyone finds a camp chair in Westerly- it belongs to Dogg.

From that point on, canoe dumping became fashionable. Sleepy and GUDG had to follow suit! I was pleased that I had pretty much all my stuff loaded onto my kayak, which certainly helped keep my stuff dry! The sun was starting to go down, and with another 40 oz mile to go (read: another hour or two of paddling) we started to get motivated to get to the camp site.

I went cruised through Burdickville alone to make tracks to claim our spot. No one was there and we were able to set up camp and enjoy a great camp meal prepared by BBW. That guy can make some camp chow... Thanks!

After Flat Tires got the fire raging, I looked up and noticed that it was barely 10:00 and everyone buy myself was in bed. I was not about to waste a good camp fire and crawled into Tent Suburbs a while later



After a nice leisurely breakfast and camp breakdown, the trip out was uneventful and very enjoyable. Nice bright sky (almost too sunny) and a calm pace made for a nice finish and a great wrap to FARTAB Vol. 6.

See y'all next year!

The End!

Literally...

Growlers

Growlers of Berkshire Brewery Steel Rail Rocks!!! I really can't wait for their Oktoberfest beer. I know it's early, but it's probably my favorite beer of this time in my life (my tastes change over time as most people's do) and I hope it stays my favorite for while. It will probably be a good thing that it's only available during the fall....hence the Oktoberfest name....and here's some history for those of us who want to learn. Unfortunately it's only available in CT, MA, RI and VT, so those of you not in New England are outta luck....like there's any of you out there.

BTW, there's rumors of a homebrew for RAMHADAB, but if not I hope for another Berkshire Brewery beer even though we had one last year.

I may also start for a poll for a BOTADAB (Brewery Observation Tour And Drink Alotta Beer), but it may be tough to coordinate because no one wants to be the driver, plus all the little ADABers on the way. But if we get it started, I would like to visit all the local brewery's in all the local area's as a group.

Busy again.

This time of year things become a blur between getting ready for FARTAB, working on the garden, and work-work.

I tend to overdo things.

Instead of just building a couple more gardens this year, we converted the whole front yard.

Instead of trying to start some plants from seed, I decide I need to start everything from seed. Multiple varieties of plants, multiple plantings, and start some from friends too. When my sister came over and went on and on about how cheap already started plants where I thought, WTF, but whatever. I didn't waste a single minute of time tho, how are you going to learn how to start plants unless you practice?

And now, for FARTAB I've been scrambling to refurbish and heaviliy modify the original ibucket for a very specific FARTAB-a-rific mission. I just finished about ten minutes ago (12:45am) and have to say I'm pleased with it. It is fully functional, sounds decents, is still portable-ish, and looks like someone made it from recycled everything. Freaking Faaaaantastic.

So, without any order, here are the pics from the last week.

New raised bed. 3'wide, 16' long, dug down 1+ft, and built up 1 ft. That's alotta soil.


Just in time too. The middle bed is now full of early and over-wintered plants, the one of the right is 1/2 full. I'm going to try Square Foot Garden planting in this one. My sister, Mrs Kaptain got the book this winter, the theory makes sense! Here is where the potatoes were planted last year. We grew about 3 bushels here. I found a handful of bonus spring potatoes when I cleaned it up and turned in the winter mulch. They seem fine even though they were in hibernation all winter out there.

Next up, FARTAB, then it's time to plant the main garden. I'm going to try to grow corn for the first time... should be interesting!

Potatoes

Last year I planted potatoes. It was pretty satisfying to dig up and eat home-grown potatoes. Almost as much fun as clamming. The only drawback of traditional hilled-up-rows they take up alot of space, and you need to give the row a break from other plants for a year. That is a long time to have a bed sit idle for a garden that has something growing in every square foot all year long.

This year I'm trying to plant in Towers. I read about them here. I used leftover T111 from the shed project, and some 2x3 studs. The first comment people make about the garden is "Oh Man you should have used Pressure Treated!". Well, I know they don't use arsenic in PT anymore, but the new stuff still doesn't sound that much more appetizing. So, I'll let this wood just rot into the ground every 5 years and not worry about poisoning the family.

Supposedly you can grow 100lbs of spuds in 4 sq ft of space. I kind of doubt it, but it's worth a shot.

After telling everyone how great homegrown taters are, I convinced a couple other people to plant some this year. I had some extra seeds so I went over to CTLPs tonight to help setup their potato bins. They have enough room to plant in traditional rows, but we planted in bins. Here I am with my new tool, an Azada. Believe the hype... this is a great tool for digging and garden preparation. Beer is also great tool for digging and garden prep.

CTLP and his bin made from scrap wood found in the yard.
One week till FARTAB! Next thursday night we kick it off at B.R. with some riding, then to visit the owls for wings!

-40

Second River Trip, Why 'out' of season is the best season

First, Snoopy says Hi.

Second, this weekend a top-secret river has been floated! I've been eye-balling it for a few years now, but there hasn't been conditions that lined up where we had lots of rain to fill it, and good weather to walk through it if needed. This weekend the stars were aligned, and Kaptain Krunch, Mrs Krunch, and I took advantage of the situation and tried it.
Here is Mrs Krunch loading up her solo canoe. That is hardcore. The first 1/4 mile or so was moving water, some bumps from the bony bottom, but it was NICE. Then, we hit the lift-overs. Here is the 77th out of 1Million and Nine. It was a biggun: Kaptain says F*ck Lift-overs.

After that, the secret river turns into a swamp, and so grown over we were laying in the bottom of the boats pulling ourselves along. Blow-downs in there sucked, because it was, well, a swamp, and if you got out of the boat you sunk up to your armpits in ice cold mud.

But, once the swamp widened out... it was some of the cleanest water I have ever seen, and it was pretty amazing to paddling through an area that very few people have ever been through.

At the beach and swimming hole and we decided to take a pit stop and refuel.

From there on out, it was easy paddling, unreal.

Later, we went to the east beach boat-beach. Here is what it looks like around here in the 'off' season'. See that beige strip of sand? That is the beach. In a month and a half there will be so many freaking NYers, Mass-h*les, and whatnot sloshing around that you won't even be able to see it.
While we were fishing we watched an obviously inexperienced tool try to cross the sandbar in a DEEP V hull, with 375 HP sucking down the stern, not once, But TWICE, and get stuck. Seriously, this machine was probably $75k-100k easy. And its this guys FIRST BOAT. WTF. When he got free the second time, we hollered to tell him where the channel was (it was obvious, its the DARK water), he got pissed off and went over to take this monstrosity out of the water. Only 6 more weeks till we have plenty more of those around here, I'll be hiding out on the weekends till their gone.

Don't forget, we are just TWO WEEKS from FARTAB!!!!

In case your forgot what happened the last five years:

Check out the last few years worth of pix:
Volume 2
Volume 3
Volume 4

CTLP's Perspective of the highly successful Vol 4:
Volume 4 Post 1
Volume 4 Post 2

and of Vol 5. I didn't have the stomach to sort through the seedy pix, so CTLP did it for us.

Volume 5, Part 1
Volume 5, part 2